KESTREL. 79 



searching for its food, tiud the shortness of its wings com- 

 pared with the other small species already figured, it departs 

 from the characters of the true Falcons. It is best known, 

 and that too at any moderate distance, by its habits of sus- 

 taining itself in the air in the same place by means of a 

 short but rapid motion of the wings, while its powerful eyes 

 search the surface beneath for prey. It has acquired the 

 name of Windhover from its habit of remaining with out- 

 spread tail suspended in the air, the head on these occasions 

 always pointing to windward ; and it is also called Stonegall, 

 or Stannell. By many authorities the Kestrel has been 

 separated from the genus Falco, and held to be the type of 

 the genus Tinnunculus, in which case the present species is 

 called Tinnunculus alaudarkts. 



Mice form the principal part of the food of the Kestrel ; 

 and it appears to obtain them by dropping suddenly upon them. 

 Montagu says that he never found any feathers in the stomach 

 of this species ; but it is certain that it does occasionally 

 kill and devour small birds, and at times the young of larger 

 ones. The remains of frogs, coleopterous insects, their 

 larvae, and earth-worms have been found in their stomachs ; 

 and Selby, on the authority of an eye-witness, has recorded 

 the fact of the Kestrel hawking cockchafers late in the evening. 

 The observer watched the bird through a glass, and " saw 

 him dart through a swarm of the insects, seize one in each 

 claw, and eat them while flying. He returned to the charge 

 again and again. I ascertained it beyond a doubt, as I 

 afterwards shot him." 



Among the many interesting communications on birds 

 which have appeared from the pen of Waterton, and from 

 his own observations, is one on the habits of the Windhover, 

 in which the value of the mouse-destroying propensities of 

 this friend to the farmer is clearly pointed out. 



In spring the Kestrel frequently takes possession of the 

 nest of a Crow or a Magpie, in which to deposit its eggs. 

 Sometimes these birds build in high rocks, or on old towers, 

 in ruined buildings, and, though rarely, in the trunk of a 

 hollow tree, laying four or five eggs, mottled all over with 



